Prior art already knows, via American patent No. U.S. Pat. No. 6, 535,817 (Florida State Research), a forecast synthesis method using historical and forecast data. More specifically, the invention protected by said American patent relates to a method for generating an accurate climatic forecast model including steps consisting in:                collecting historical forecast information from various models;        accumulating observation data;        comparing the historical forecast data and the observations to determine the historical performance of the various models;        generating a multimodel superensemble of climatic models based upon the performances of each of the models.        
Prior art also knows, from American patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,699 (IBM), a forecast system including a three-layer (or more generally multilayer) neural network. Said network is applied to climatic data and trained on such data. The first node of the input layer is connected to the statistical forecasts whereas the other nodes are linked to one historical datum from the set of historical data.
Prior art also knows patent application PCT WO 94/16394 (Strategic Weather) which relates to a forecast system and method developed from the impact of the climate on management planning applications. More specifically, said international application relates to a computerised system and method with which weather forecasts are introduced into a predictive model which quantifies historical weather impact relations between datasets, said forecasts being used for predicting the future impact of the climate on management plans. The predictive model can use multiple regression or a neural network. In one application relating to retailing, the computer system and method have a weather impact predictive model based on correlations established between historical weather conditions and point of sale store transactions data. The weather impact model is coupled with weather forecasts to adjust management plans for buying, distributing, financial budgeting, promotional and advertising applications. A graphical user interface provides easy assimilation of the analysis in relation to specific management applications.
Prior art also knows, from patent application PCT WO 97/26613 (Strategic Weather), a system and method for forecasting retail performances according to the meteorology. Said international application therefore relates to a system and method for forecasting future retail performances. The system comprises a storage unit storing a sales history database, and a weather forecast database. An analysis module determines the extent to which the past retail performance of a plurality of products in various point of sale stores was affected by weather conditions, using the sales history database and the weather forecast database. A configuration module, coupled to the analysis module, estimates the expected future retail performance for said products in shops, for a plurality of future time periods, using the weather database and results produced by the analysis module. A graphical user interface, coupled to the analysis module and the configuration module, enables users to view and manipulate results produced by the analysis and configuration modules, and thus to forecast the future retail performance of the products concerned in the point of sale stores considered.
Finally, the Canadian patent application CA 2 199 588 (Hoffman Efrem) is also known which proposes a hierarchical recognition and identification system for data matrix connections.
Prior art also knows, via patent application PCT WO 02/21381 (Planalytics), a system, method and computer program allowing conjunctural forecasts to be obtained in the short term according to the meteorological weather.
Also known in prior art is the American patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,584,447 Planalytics which relates to a system and method for forecasting future retail performances. This is a conventional system comprising a storage device and in particular a database relating to sales data and a database relating to weather history data and a database for forecast data.
Via European patent application EP 1 324 253 (Météo France), a method for providing a weather index is also known. To provide a weather index, said method includes steps consisting in: measuring at least one weather phenomenon with at least one geographical position to obtain at least one weather datum; obtaining at least one so-called human datum linked to a least one economical or demographical size relating at least to one geographical area including the respective position; and calculating an index from said data.
In the field of climatic forecast, the following scientific publications are also known:                R. Cano, A. S. Cofifio, J. M. Gutiérrez and M. A. Rodriguez, Self-Organizing Maps for Statistical Downscaling in Short-Term Forecasting. A Case Study in the Iberian Peninsula, Applied Meteorology (submitted), April 2002;        White, W. B., 2000, Influence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave on Australian Precipitation from 1958 to 1997, J. Climate, 13, 2125-2141;        Marshall J D, and F. Molteni, 1993, Towards a dynamical understanding of planetary scale flow regimes, J. Atmos. Scie, 50, 1792-1818;        Michelangeli, P A, R. Vautard and B. Legras, 1995, Weather Regimes: recurrence and quasi stationarity, J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 1237-1256;        Michelangeli, P A, and R. Vautard, 1998, The dynamics of Euro Atlantic blocking onsets, Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc, 124, 1045-1070;        Silverman, B W, 1986, Density estimation for statistics and data analysis, Chapman and Hall.        